Vegetative State Patients Can Communicate
Scientists have been able to reach into the mind of a brain-damaged man and communicate with his thoughts. The research, carried out in the UK and Belgium, involved a new brain scanning method. Awareness was detected in three other patients previously diagnosed as being in a vegetative state (patients in a vegetative state are awake, not in a coma, but have no awareness because of severe brain damage). The study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that scans can detect signs of awareness in patients thought to be closed off from the world. With one patient - a Belgian man injured in a traffic accident seven years ago - they asked a series of questions. He was able to communicate "yes" and "no" using just his thoughts. The team told him to use "motor" imagery like a tennis match to indicate "yes" and "spatial" imagery like thinking about roaming the streets for a "no". Helen Gill, a consultant in low awareness state at The Royal Hospital for Neurodisability in London, welcomed the new research, but cautioned that it was still early days for the research saying, "It's very useful if you have a scan which can show some activity, but you need a detailed sensory assessment as well.” She said the hospital did a study of 60 patients admitted with a diagnosis of vegetative state, and 43% could communicate.
 

Cyber-Warfare
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has claimed that cyber attacks could become weapon of choice in future conflicts; for example, with the targeting of activists' emails, which is a growing threat in China, according to security experts. Cyber-warfare attacks on military infrastructure, government and communications systems, and financial markets pose a rapidly growing but little understood threat to international security - and could become a decisive weapon of choice in future conflicts between states (the London-based IISS warned yesterday). IISS director-general, John Chipman, said, "Despite evidence of cyber attacks in recent political conflicts, there is little appreciation internationally of how to assess cyber-conflict. We are now, in relation to the problem of cyber-warfare, at the same stage of intellectual development as we were in the 1950s in relation to possible nuclear war." The warning accompanied yesterday's publication of the Military Balance 2010, the IISS's annual assessment of global military capabilities and defence economics.

Genocide Charge Against Sudan President
Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, could face genocide charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) after a legal ruling over his role in the Darfur conflict. Bashir already faces an arrest warrant on seven charges of war crimes against humanity. He is accused of having personally instructed his forces to annihilate three ethnic groups, the Fur, the Masalit and the Zaghawa. A ruling saying there was insufficient proof to charge him with genocide was overturned by the ICC's appeal chamber yesterday (February 3). Legal experts said the prospect of such a charge was now a step closer. If a genocide charge is brought, it will be the first by the ICC against a serving head of state. Bashir rejects the charges against him and has wide support from Arab and African countries, to which he travels seemingly without fear of arrest. He was in Qatar discussing Darfur when the appeal ruling was announced. The government in Khartoum dismissed the ruling as political, with intent to hinder Sudan's first democratic elections in 24 years, due to be held in April. The UN estimates that more than two million people have fled their homes in Darfur and more than 200,000 have died. Khartoum has challenged these figures, claiming the death toll is no more than 10,000, and has refused to co-operate with the court in The Hague.

Jacob Zuma’s Love Child
South African President Jacob Zuma, who has three wives (Mr Zuma, who has 19 children, is a Zulu, a group which practises polygamy), has admitted fathering a child with the daughter of a football executive after days of speculation. In a statement, he dismissed "mischievous" criticism from activists who said his actions had undermined official HIV/Aids campaigns. He said he had done all the "cultural imperatives" by formally acknowledging responsibility and paternity. The allegation in weekend media reports that he had fathered the child led to a rash of negative publicity - one MP suggesting that he should seek treatment for "sex addiction". Mr Zuma was praised last year when he announced major changes to the country's Aids policy, which included increasing the roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs. But opposition parties now say his behaviour contradicts the government's stance on HIV prevention - preaching regular condom use and faithfulness to one partner. South Africa has the highest number of HIV infections in the world; more than five million people.